Scattered postings from a hitchhiker's travel journal

The journey; on the road to the digital networked society

Digital Congress Austria 2009: The best place to be in Europe next week

Getting digital marketing right means far more than having a website. Smart brands have shifted the centre of gravity of their communications to digital platforms, and the effects can be staggering.

In the pre-digital days, relationship marketing was a rather crude ‘one-size-fits-all’ tool, driven from simple databases with only very simple segmentation. It gave an improvement on the mass marketing of broadcast television and newspapers, but did little to build real relationships with customers. When email went mainstream it changed the landscape for relationship marketing because it provided a seamless link between a broadcast media tool and much smarter database driven segmentation.

At the Austrian Digital Congress, we’ll hear from one of the world’s leading relationship marketers: the campaign manager behind the Obama election programme. While this might not seem like relationship marketing on the surface, if you were on the receiving end of the dialogue, then you’d be hearing from the presidential campaign team every day; relevant, powerful and engaging messages that were part of a movement for social change.

The Obama election campaign

This was a step change in the way politics works. At the heart of the campaign was an engine that took policy ideas and succeeded in turning them into a movement for social change. The technology took policy ideas and made them accessible and engaging, reaching a new generation on their own terms. The campaign team segmented their audiences tightly so people received messages that were truly tailored: different messages for supporters of different parties, for those that donated and those that did not, and for those that were interested in different aspects of policy.

The Obama campaign brought politics to the web on a grand scale for the first time. By synchronising the messaging in traditional media with the clips released through YouTube and social media, they were able to achieve a seismic shift in the delivery of political messaging. And then they went a step further: they encouraged citizens to share their voice. From the discussion parties in houses, to the campaign meetings run by local supporters, to the mass rallies, the campaign became a genuine movement for social change.

Digital channels were the catalyst for igniting this, but the ideas were clearly independent of the technology. What the technology allowed was to make this real for US citizens, and then to involve them in the process. Messenger, Mobile marketing, Twitter and all the new relationship tools simply extend the channels further.

The campaign continues

After the election it didn’t stop. The campaign team continue the movement for change by retaining the channels that give The White House a direct route into the inbox of millions of people around the world. From healthcare to welfare reform, international relations to economic crisis, citizens are involved and connected. The campaign has changed the culture of politics in the US and changed the nature of the electorate. Social media has achieved an education process that has reengaged people in democracy and politics, raising the quality of debate and raising the level of participation. That’s not simple a victory for one presidential candidate in one country at one time, it’s a step change for society.

At the Digital Congress in Austria, we’ll hear from the man behind the campaign strategy, the approach and the role of social media in electing a president.

Milestones

Broadband battle with US UK penetration of fast broadband connections slips ahead of US for first time.

Silver surfers swell Almost two out of every three of those coming up to retirement in the UK are online; double where the UK was in just 2001

9% of China online And with vast growth rates to match it's not hard to understand why every dot com is looking East right now.

Blogtastic 1 new blog created every second as blogging goes mainstream.

The magic billion Crossing the threshold of '1 billion people' now online worldwide.

Beethoven rocks the house 1.3m downloads of Beethoven tracks, making him 1-9 in the download chart. Thanks to BBC Online the stereotype of music being just for kids gets blown apart.

Ebay addicts More than £4bn traded on eBay here this year, accounting for 1.3% of UK sales and an average of £3,000 per trader; latest news – the tax man’s interested in a slice!

Broadband Britain Finally broadband home access outweighs dial-up, but spare a thought for the poor folks still on dial up.

Navigators

"The future of advertising is the internet"Bill Gates 27/10/05

"It is happening now and is strong, rapid and large. [And there’s a] tremendous violence in traditional media as it continues to get displaced by digital."Sir Martin Sorrell, 27/10/05

"What is happening is a revolution in the way young people access news. Unless we awaken to these changes, which are quite different to those of 5 or 6 years ago, we will, as an industry, be relegated to the status of also-rans."Rupert Murdoch, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 13/04/05

Smallprint

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